Putin Makes Rare Visit to Ukraine War Headquarters

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia made a shock go to to a command put up coordinating the Russian warfare effort in Ukraine, the Kremlin mentioned on Saturday, in a uncommon demonstration of hands-on involvement within the army marketing campaign’s execution and planning.

Mr. Putin spent the day on Friday within the army headquarters in an undisclosed location, presiding over a basic assembly with Russia’s high brass and holding separate ones with varied commanders, the Kremlin mentioned in a statement. In his opening remarks, carried on Russian state tv, Mr. Putin mentioned he had come to hearken to his commanders’ proposals in regards to the Russian army’s “short- and medium-term movements.”

As Russia’s army marketing campaign has suffered a sequence of painful and embarrassing setbacks, Mr. Putin has distanced himself from the blunders, clearly unwilling to affiliate himself with defeat. All the whereas he has maintained a studied calm, insisting in opposition to all cause that the warfare is “going according to plan.”

For occasion, Mr. Putin by no means commented publicly about his military’s retreat from town of Kherson — the one Ukrainian regional capital Russia had captured because the invasion in February. He additionally by no means made public visits to the entrance strains and even to territories captured by Russia. Instead, Mr. Putin targeting financial affairs, similar to opening a turkey breeding manufacturing unit in Siberia in November, making an attempt to point out that it was all enterprise as regular in Russia.